England manager Roy Hodgson has revealed that he wrote a letter to all the fans attending their friendly with the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday begging them not to cause trouble.
The two countries haven't met since 1996, where rioting caused the high-profile abandonment of the game at Lansdowne Road.
The letters sent by Hodgson requested fans to refrain from offensive chanting towards and to respect their opponents.
"It is very important. It almost goes without saying that you want fans to show respect to all opponents," Hodgson told Sky Sports News. "In particular I am hoping that on Wednesday night, with this being such an important game in our Jubilee year, that our fans are going to come there to support us, to cheer us to a victory, and I hope that's going to have any impact on the opponents.
"I was very happy to send out the letter, and I am very happy with everything the FA has done to try and ensure that the game is played in the right spirit, as I know it will be on the field. We can only hope that our fans, and the Irish fans for that matter, show the level of respect we'd all hope to see in a match of this type.
"The fans have been extremely good so far. The problem when you talk about these matters is people always allude to incidents a long way in the past when times were slightly different. We can't deny there have been some dark times but recently we've been blessed with very, very good support and very respectful too."
England face the Republic of Ireland at Wembley on Wednesday.
Matt Cotton
